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[AIR DATE: 01 19 18]
[FINAL TRANSCRIPT]
OPEN (VO/NAT)
((Banner))
Art and the City
((SOT))
“I want this artwork to highlight the positivity in communities, in relationships, and people working together to make things better.”
((Animation Transition))
((Banner))
No-Tech School
((SOT))
“Friends and families said they wanted to see what farming was like. They wanted to come see our animals. It started to really ‘click’ that these kids belong outside. They’re so proud.”
((Animation Transition))
((Banner))
Wyclef Jean
((SOT))
“I want the reality for the Congress to understand this is not a good thing if you are supporting Haiti to send these people back, because the government of Haiti cannot really receive these people. It's sort of like you’re just sending them back to their death and famine.”
((Open Animation))
BLOCK A:
((Banner: Children of Islamic State))
((ANIMATION W/ GFX, CAPTIONS, PHOTOS)
((Banner: Children of Islamic State))
((Reporter: Ayesha Tanzeem))
((Camera: Rahim Gul Sarwan))
((Editor: Malik Waqar Ahmed))
((Field Producer: Anat Khan))
((Mobile Phone Footage: Bakht e Ali))
In 2015, Islamic State declared a new branch.
Wilayat e Khorasan or Islamic State Khorasan – ISK.
Eastern Afghanistan became its stronghold.
ISK recruited from existing extremist groups, including the Taliban and al Qaida.
They also recruited children.
((PKG)) CHILDREN OF ISLAMIC STATE
((LAL MOHAMMAD, FORMER ISK CHILD SOLDIER))
“I was nine years old when I was with them. Now I am 12 years old. They used to show us videos on how to fight and carry out suicide bombings.
((NARRATOR))
For almost two years, Lal Mohammad and his brother Bakht e Ali lived and trained with Islamic State Khorasan.
((NATS))
((NARRATOR))
Now they are back and trying to re-adjust to a normal life.
We meet at their home in the Achin district of Nangarhar province in Eastern Afghanistan. This is where, three years ago, ISK emerged as a vicious new militant force. Even residents used to the strict fundamentalism of the Taliban were taken aback by ISK’s extremism. In a region racked by conflict, both foreign and domestic, their violence stood out. Yet, the Afghanistan government was slow to move against the militants, allowing them to entrench. But with the help of both NATO and US forces, they eventually counter-attacked. ((NATS))
((NARRATOR))
The biggest non-nuclear bomb ever used by the U.S., nicknamed ‘the mother of all bombs’, was dropped on an ISK target not far from here. The government and its allies have taken back some of the region, but not all.
((AYESHA TANZEEM, VOA NEWS))
Despite the gains, we received a very clear signal that war in this region is not over yet. While we were standing around, a bomb was dropped over that mountain.
((NARRATOR))
Traveling through Achin is dangerous. Outsiders are few and easily recognized. Militants have informers among the population. Kidnappings for ransom are common. So, we need help from the heavily armed local police. This part of the house is called a hujra. It is reserved for entertaining male guests. I am an oddity here.
We talk to the boys under the watchful eye of their father and the local police chief. Daesh, as the militants are also called, came to this house to recruit the men and boys. After decades of foreign intervention, it wasn’t a hard sell.
((BAKHT E ALI, FORMER ISK CHILD SOLDIER))
“When Daesh came to our area, most people already sympathized with them.
((COURTESY: Bakht e Ali))
Our tribal elders and religious clerics started backing them. Daesh commanders started sitting with us in our hujras. They would show us videos of the infidels oppressing Muslims. They told us the local police and army were their puppets, that we needed to do jihad against them.”
((END COURTESY))
((NARRATOR))
Their father Taweez Khan was convinced, so he joined ISK, taking his sons with him.
((COURTESY: Bakht e Ali))
The militant group worked hard to shape the children’s minds.
((END COURTESY))
((BAKHT E ALI, FORMER ISK CHILD SOLDIER))
“I was around 16 year old. I didn’t have this beard then.
((COURTESY: Bakht e Ali))
There were a lot of kids there. They were brainwashing the kids using the Quran. Some kids were older than me,
((COURTESY: Bakht e Ali))
but some, around eight to ten, were quite young. They must have been around seven to eight years old. I saw it with my own eyes. They used to tell these young kids that if they carried out suicide bombings, all their troubles would be over and they would go straight to paradise. They were so good at indoctrination that any child who listened to them for a month would not listen to anyone else.”
((NARRATOR))
The instructors trained them military style, with physical exercises and weapons training, teaching them how to fire pistols, AK 47s, bombs, and rocket launchers. The ultimate goal was to make them suicide bombers. Eventually, they took the younger brother into battle.
((END COURTESY))
((LAL MOHAMMAD, FORMER ISK CHILD SOLDIER))
“Daesh fighters told me we were going to be in a firefight, and that we would stay behind and open fire from our check post. You should go forward and explode your suicide vest.”
((NARRATOR))
((COURTESY: Bakht e Ali))
But they lost that fight and had to retreat. He came back alive.
((END COURTESY))
((FOOTAGE DOWNLOADED FROM IS SITES STARTS))
And with a renewed determination to carry out ISK commands.
One of the militants’ decrees was that anyone who did not follow their fundamentalist brand of sharia must be punished.
((VOICE OF BAKHT E ALI))
“We’ve seen a lot of people get slaughtered. We also wanted to slaughter someone because we were told that this would bring us holy rewards from God. People who disagreed with Daesh were slaughtered.”
((NARRATOR))
Finally, it became more than their father could bear. ISK would not let people leave – punishing, sometimes killing those attempting to escape.
((END FOOTAGE DOWNLOADED FROM IS SITES))
Eventually, the boys and their father managed to flee, taking with them some other men. The father now works with the police, who offer some protection. But he knows the danger if ISK were to regain control of the region.
((AYESHA TANZEEM, VOA NEWS))
While these two young boys are now safe, no one knows what happened to the dozens of others that were in the IS controlled madrassas with them.
Ayesha Tanzeem, VOA News, Achin, Nangarhar.
((FADE TO BLACK THEN SLIDES OF TEXT))
Not only ISK uses children.
The Taliban, even Afghan police, have child recruits.
There is no effective program to de-radicalize and reintegrate these children into society.
Bakht e Ali is working as a security guard. Lal Mohammad is at home. He does not go to school.
TEASE (VO/NAT)
Coming up….
((Banner))
Art and the City
((SOT))
“The message is one of hope, one og inclusion, one of just kind of celebrating diversity of Los Angeles, an allegory of the city if you will.”
BREAK ONE
BUMP IN (ANIM)
BLOCK B:
((Banner: Art and the City))
((PKG)) DC IMMIGRATION ARTIST
((Banner + Animation: Washington DC))
((Reporter/Camera: Niki Papadogiannakis))
((Producer: Martin Secrest))
((NATS))
((CARLOS CARMONAMEDINA, ARTIST))
“My art, I feel, is a very natural thing for me. I don’t really put too much thought in why I do the things that I do. They come very naturally so, I guess, it’s just an extension of my personal curiosity and how I approach the world I live on. So, if I am right now interested about how the city behaves and how the city changes, it’s natural that my art is going to reflect that as well.”
((NATS))
((CARLOS CARMONAMEDINA, ARTIST))
“This project was, for me, a perfect excuse to get to know the city better and get out there and discover what’s going on around me.”
((NATS))
((CARLOS CARMONAMEDINA, ARTIST))
“I think, like everyone, when they see the body of my work, they consider me a local, and I consider myself as well a local. At the end, this is the city that I now consider mine.”
((PKG)) LA MURALIST
((Banner + Animation: Los Angeles))
((Reporter / Camera: Arturo Martinez))
((Producer: Martin Secrest))
((NATS))
((ROBERT VARGAS, ARTIST))
“Downtown really is like my front yard. I grew up on a street called City View, where I had a clear sight line to the cityscape. And I was always destined to, I think, dream big and paint big with that kind of vernacular, that kind of backdrop.”
((NATS))
((ROBERT VARGAS, ARTIST))
“The message here is one of hope, one of inclusion, one of just kind of celebrating the diversity of Los Angeles, an allegory of the city if you will.”
((NATS))
((ROBERT VARGAS, ARTIST))
“One of the angels up there, the one at the very top, is actually a portrait of my mother, the first person to introduce me to downtown L.A. The other angel that I selected is a homeless woman that would hang out here every day, and I saw her just earlier today. That’s one way of uplifting someone through the creative process.”
((NATS))
((ROBERT VARGAS, ARTIST))
“The Tongva Indian girl is really the anchor of the mural and where the whole, kind of, not only mural but the city of L.A. begins. She is a Tongva and the Tongva Indians are the original people to inhabit the L.A. basin so they’re the original Angelinos.”
((PKG)) BALTIMORE
((Banner + Animation: Baltimore))
((Executive Producer: Marsha James))
((Reporter/Camera: Kaveh Rezaei))
((BEN HAMBURGER, COMMUNITY ARTIST))
“I grew up in a super diverse community in Silver Spring, Maryland. After college, I started travelling. I went to Thailand and ended up getting a job really luckily at an art studio there. So I started teaching, and teaching art became part of my practice. And art became, this way, for me to connect with people. And so I started recognizing it as both a career path as an educator, and as a social practice, a way to engage with other people and other cultures.
So I moved to Baltimore a few years ago. East Baltimore, it’s really changing dramatically. You have blocks of vacant homes. You have new high-rise apartments shooting up right next to each other. So I think that’s what led me outside with my easel, and I started painting these kind of areas of transition.
“Facing Change” was my way to explore, really digging deeper than what’s on the surface level, to try to figure out what’s really going on. And as I was doing that, neighbors, residents would come up to me and talk to me. So I paint portraits of each of the people that I interviewed on formstone, which is an exterior façade found on a lot of rowhomes here in Baltimore, and I would collect debris from houses being demolished.
Art innately is an emotional experience. And, I think, it asks you to be emotional and perceptive to feelings. Throughout this project of creating “Facing Change,” I heard a lot of really sad stories about people losing what they perceived to be their home, or feeling pushed out. But, I think, at the end of the day, I get a feeling of hope and strength and pride through working with communities, because I want this artwork to highlight the positivity in communities, in relationships, and people working together to make things better.”
TEASE ((VO/NAT))
Coming up….
((Banner))
Hi-Tech Clo Bot
((SOT))
BREAK TWO
BUMP IN (ANIM)
BLOCK C
((Banner: High-Tech Learning))
((PKG)) HI TECH - CLO-BOT / ROBOT GOES TO SCHOOL
((Banner + Animation: High-Tech Learning))
((Reporter: Carolyn Presutti))
((Camera: Adam Greenbaum))
((Producers: Elizabeth Cherneff, Martin Secrest))
((NATS))
((GFX + TEXT + MUSIC + PHOTOS: Homebound by surgery, Chloe attends school virtually with a device from Double Robotics))
((NATS))
((CHLOE’S FATHER))
“At it’s heart, it’s incredibly convenient. Once we found out it was basically an I-Pad on a Segway, it was like that makes a lot of sense.”
((NATS))
((MARY FUCELLA, FIFTH GRADE TEACHER))
“Yeah, it was just like having another student in the classroom, yes. It’s really nice and they help her out like the same way they would help out another student. (Reporter: “And how’s it been for you?”) I’ve enjoyed it. I also feel like it’s a learning experience too, to be able to interact with someone’s that at home but then feeling like they’re still in the classroom. I think is so important.”
((NATS))
((MARY FUCELLA, FIFTH GRADE TEACHER))
“I mean I feel like it’s wonderful, because I know I’ve always heard of a lot of students that had to be on home teaching, and then them missing a lot of curriculum and then also missing the socialization with their friends, and now for her to be able to rest at home, but then also be able to be in the classroom, is wonderful.”
((NATS))
“Like I said, I think it means that it was a small step for him, but when he tells like other people, they’ll think, ‘Oh my God, it’s so cool!’”
((CHLOE, STUDENT))
“I think I know the answer, I’ll try it, and I get it right, I’m like, ‘Oh, personal victory. Whoa.’”
((PKG)) LO TECH - FARM SCHOOL
((Banner + Animation: No-Tech Learning))
((Reporter: Faiza el Masri))
((Camera: Adam Greenbaum))
((Producer: Zdenko Novacki))
((NATS))
((JACLYN JENKINS, OWNER, ONE DAY FARM))
“So when we first looked at the farm, we were trying to figure out what kind of farmers we wanted to be. And then all of a sudden, all of these friends and families started to come out. They said they wanted to see what farming was like. And we had all these animals. They wanted to come see our animals. And that’s when it started to spark a farm school and it just started to really ‘click’ that these kids belong outside. They belong doing chores and working. They’re so proud to be able to work on the farm and to be around these awesome animals all the time and grow things.”
((NATS))
“What about this one? Orange in Spanish is….?
“Mr. Hayden, can you put yours away so you can come wash your hands?”
((ALISON HUFF, FARM SCHOOLTEACHER))
“So, this afternoon we will make butter, because we’re learning about the cow for this month. So then they learn that we receive things from animals and they become thankful. When we have the garden in the summer, we make things like salsa out of all the produce out of the garden. We make applesauce in the fall. We try to incorporate cooking as much as possible. That way they can see the benefits of what we’re getting out of the garden and actually taste it right then.”
((NATS))
Reporter: “What do you do when it snows or rains, or anything like that?”
((JACLYN & KENNY JENKINS, OWNERS, ONE DAY FARM))
Kenny: “Have fun!”
Jaclyn: “That is actually the number one question immediately we get from parents, is what happens when it rains? And we say bring an extra pair of clothes. We have raincoats. We have boots. We have hats. We have gloves. We go out and what more fun than these kids getting to splash in puddles and play in mud and they have so much fun. We’re out.”
((NATS))
“Alright friends, let’s go feed the chickens!”
((JACLYN JENKINS, OWNER, ONE DAY FARM))
“You know, I like to focus a lot on safety with animals. They do have their own personalities so we talk about how to be safe around animals, making sure that you don’t put your hands near their mouth, and curl your fingers. That way they don’t bite. We talk about their feet and how they can step. And so we learn about our safety boundaries. So, if they ever encounter some sort of animal, especially dogs, you always have to ask before you pet them. We just like to offer these abilities to be with them so they can learn how to be around them. To be calm, not run around and scream, and be gentle. Taking care of animals is super, super important.”
TEASE ((VO/NAT))
Coming up….
((Banner))
Wyclef Jean
((SOT))
BREAK THREE
BUMP IN (ANIM)
BLOCK D
((Banner: Wyclef Jean))
((PKG))
((Banner: Wyclef Jean))
((Reporter: Ramon Taylor, Sandra Lemaire))
((Camera: Ye Yuan, Ramon Taylor))
((Producer: Phil Alexiou))
((NATS))
((WYCLEF JEAN, HAITIAN-AMERICAN ARTIST-PRODUCER))
“The ‘Carnival III: The Fall and Rise of a Refugee’. I’m inspired by Fela Kuti. And remember Fela Kuti studied jazz in England. I studied jazz in New Jersey. Fela fused his jazz and created Afrobeats, and I did the same with an album called the Carnival. I created in my terms. I call it ‘Global Gumbo.’”
((NATS))
((Mandatory Chyron: Karl Ferguson))
((WYCLEF JEAN, HAITIAN-AMERICAN ARTIST-PRODUCER))
“The slums. I started with the slums because that's where I'm from, the area where we got the guns, we got the drugs. You know what I mean? We got the fishermen, fishing the cocaine out the sea, you know, and then the end, like, Thank God for the Culture, just to say that the culture of hip-hop is sort of what saved me and put me in the position that I'm in.”
((NATS))
((WYCLEF JEAN, HAITIAN-AMERICAN ARTIST-PRODUCER))
“I came from Haiti. My first stop was Brooklyn: Marlboro projects, Coney Island, you know. And it's the immigrant story. We lived in the projects, mama was on welfare. Like I always say, it was a culture shock because you can't speak English, you’re trying to figure that out. The level of violence was crazy.”
((RAMON TAYLOR, VOA NEWS))
“You’ve been very vocal about the ending of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians. What’s at stake here?”
((WYCLEF JEAN, HAITIAN-AMERICAN ARTIST-PRODUCER))
“I speak on this because I want the reality for the Congress to understand this is not a good thing if you are supporting Haiti to send these people back, because the government of Haiti cannot really receive these people. It's sort of like you’re just sending them back to their death and famine, if that makes sense.”
((NATS))
((RAMON TAYLOR, VOA NEWS))
“Can you put into words the feeling you have when you’re composing music? Do you know if something is going to be a ‘hit’?”
((WYCLEF JEAN, HAITIAN-AMERICAN ARTIST-PRODUCER))
“The best way to explain it is when you’re recording music, electricity flows through you, and it just gives you this energy, man. I tell people, we don't write hits, we write cultural phenomenons, and through the years, people will find records and continue to find songs.”
((NATS))
((WYCLEF JEAN, HAITIAN-AMERICAN ARTIST-PRODUCER))
“Voice of America. All my diasporas. This is your boy Wyclef Jean. One love baby.”
SHOW ENDS
